VietNamNet Bridge – Like any other nature museum in the world, the Vietnamese National Museum of Nature would have a national biological inspection center.

In the world of mummified creatures (part 1)

What’s the center like?

At the Vietnam Museum of Nature, there is a division with the name seemingly strange to many people – the empirical taxonomy and genetic diversity. Unlike the specialists of the manipulation division, who have to deal with specimens every day, the officers here work in modern laboratories all day.

“We are preparing in the labor force, qualification and equipment for the establishment of the national biological inspection center which would belong to the Vietnam National Museum of Nature,” said Dr Dinh Thi Phong, Head of the division.

The function of the center according to Phong, is to find out what the biological specimens brought into or out of Vietnam are by considering the standard specimen database built up by the center. The information would help much in carrying out scientific research works or help control the illegal wildlife trade. In order to do that well, it’s necessary to identify exactly every individual organism based on taxonomy.

Many different of taxonomy methods have been used in the world, including the most traditional and popular – morphological classification. Scientists consider the morphological characteristics of the biological organisms to realize the differences among them and then make classification.

There is another popular method is the chemical classification method, under which specialists classify creatures based on chemical characteristics of every species.

However, the method being followed by the Vietnam National Museum of Nature, which is also considered the optimal one, is the molecular classification based on molecular biology.

Explaining this, Phong said that there are three main reasons behind the museum’s decision to apply the method. First, it can bring reliable results. Second, it is a simple method. And third, it does not require the whole specimen of the wildlife.

Going ahead with big worries

There has not been much information about the works of the scientists at the nature museum. The scientific information about the specimens on display is just a part of their works.

Not only having build up standard database to serve the inspection, experts also still have to make assessments of genetic population diversity and suggest the protection over some certain species. The populations with lower biodiversity level would need stricter protection.

The scientists here also prepare for the building up of a bank of living cells or AND samples, which would serve the preservation and reproduction of genetic sources and serve scientific research when there are favorable conditions.

The activities in the fields of taxonomy and genetic source diversification show a very important role of the natural nature museum: it has been engaged in the process of the nature imbalance adjustment.

The museum would be the institution which makes scientific research and build up the accurate understanding about the nation’s nature conditions.

Experts have pointed out that the museum would have positive impacts in both the macro and micro scale on the nature imbalance.

It would help heighten people’s awareness of the right ways to deal with the nature. Furthermore, the biological inspection works or genetic source library setting and the suggestions about population diversity would be considered the macro influences to the nature.

SGTT